Prologue:They call me Tapestry... This would
be my 7th journey to the Burning Man festival in Nevada--seven trips across
the American West. I try to vary my route every time, just to see different
stuff. Every road and highway offers new adventures. When I go down familiar
roads, I like to see what's different, what's changed since the last time
I traveled that way... and see how much I've changed.

My faithful steed Satori had already made many trips to Burning
Man, but in 2010 it clocked over a quarter million miles, and I was afraid
it wasn't up to another trip to the desert. So instead, I drove my 1998
Chevy Cavalier which I had recently acquired from my Mom, God rest her
soul. Two months before leaving for the playa, I had driven the Cavalier
all the way to North Dakota and back with no problems.

The smaller car meant I could not sleep in my car, as was always
a convenient option with Satori. That meant I would have to sleep somewhere
else while traveling. I did not relish the idea of assembling and disassembling
my 3-man tent every night, but then the solution seemed obvious: get
a smaller tent. So, I found a small, one-person pop-up tent at army
surplus which I tested on my North Dakota trip, and it worked great. Since
I didn't have to save space for sleeping in the car, that meant I could
actually bring more stuff with me, so that was a plus. I wasn't worried.

The funny thing is, this is pretty much the exact
route I had planned to take on my first trip to Burning Man in 2003. I
wanted to explore a little on my way back home that year, but I had to
come straight back because of financial reasons.